Friday, 28 April 2017

Case
You are building a Tabular model in combination with Azure Analysis Server (AAS) and you want to use an on-premise SQL database as source, but you are getting the following error:

Visual Studio - Error while importing the data

Error message:Failed to save modifications to the server. Error returned: 'On-Premise Gateway is required to access the data source and the gateway is not installed for the server bitools.

How do you fix this error?

Solution
As the error message indicates, we need a gateway to use data from an on-premise data source. This On-Premise Gateway can be downloaded here. In this case we install the gateway for our AAS server. Important to know is that you are installing a gateway for a specific AAS server. For example, if you have an Azure subscription with two servers that connect to on-premises data sources, the gateway must be installed on two separate computers in your (organization) network.

Run the setup, choose a installation folder/path and install the gateway. After installation, you must configure the gateway for your AAS server. Sign in to Azure and fill in your server name. Now you are ready to go!

Azure - Install on-premises data gateway

Note:
Perhaps you saw that I had to update my gateway, this is because I have installed earlier a gateway for Power BI. These gateways are the same, but for AAS it is configured differently. More information about this gateway here.

Result
Go back to your Tabular model and try to import the data again. It works!

Visual Studio - Importing the data succedeed

Note:
If it doesn't work the first time, restart Visual Studio and open your solution again. The connection to the AAS server may be lost after inactivity.

Common Errors
A common installation error of the gateway is the following:

The server you have provided does not exist or you are not an administrator of the server. {"code":"NotFound","subCode":0,"message":"Server 'ssastest' is not found.","timeStamp":"2017-05-15T10:07:28.1324395Z","httpStatusCode":404,"details":[{"code":"RootActivityId","message":"b49c33e2-7e45-4e67-98f0-ab86faf21c12"},{"code":"Param1","message":"ssastest"}]}
Or the following error:

The server you have provided does not exist or you are not an administrator of the server. {"code":"Unauthorized","subCode":0,"message":"Either server 'asazure://westeurope.asazure.windows.net/ssastest' does not exist or user is not the administrator of 'asazure://westeurope.asazure.windows.net/ssastest'","timeStamp":"2017-05-15T09:57:48.7294661Z","httpStatusCode":400,"details":[{"code":"RootActivityId","message":"a029ee64-56b7-4f85-96da-bb2f78c8eba6"},{"code":"Param1","message":"asazure://westeurope.asazure.windows.net/ssastest"}]}

Based on this, we have two types of errors: the AAS server is not found or you have no access to the server. See the screenshots below for more information (possible fixes).

Thursday, 27 April 2017

Case
Azure Analysis Services (AAS) is a little bit too expensive to just let it run continuously if you are not using it all the time. How can I pause and resume it automatically according a fixed schedule to save some money in Azure?

Pause and Resume Azure Analysis Services

Solution
If you are are using AAS for testing purposes or nobody is using the production environment outside the office hours then you can pause it with some PowerShell code in Azure Automation Runbooks. This could potentially save you a lot of money. If pausing is too rigorous for you and you are not already using the lowest tier then you could also schedule a downscale and upscale.

1) Automation Account
First we need an Azure Automation Account to run the Runbook. If you don't have one or want to create a new one, then search for Automation under Monitoring + Management and give it a suitable name, then select your subscription, resource group and location. For this example I will choose West Europe since I'm from the Netherlands.

Azure Automation Account

2) Credentials
Next step is to create Credentials to run this runbook with. This works very similar to the Credentials in SQL Server Management Studio. Go to the Azure Automation Account and click on Credentials in the menu. Then click on Add New Credentials. You could just use your own Azure credentials, but the best options is to use a service account with a non-expiring password. Otherwise you need to change this regularly.

Create new credentials

3) Connections
This step is for your information only and to understand the code. Under Connections you will find a default connection named 'AzureRunAsConnection' that contains information about the Azure environment, like the tendant id and the subscription id. To prevent hardcoded connection details we will retrieve these fields in the PowerShell code.

Azure Connections

4) Variables
An other option to prevent hardcoded values in your PowerShell code it to use Variables. We will use this option to provide the Resource Group and the name of your Analysis Server. Go to Variables and add a new variable for ResourceGroupName and add the name of the Resource Group that is used by your AAS. Then repeat this for the name of your AAS (not the Server Name value that starts with asazure://) and call it AnalysisServerName.

Add variables

5) Modules
The Azure Analysis Services methods (cmdlets) are in a separate PowerShell module which is not included by default. If you do not add this module you will get errors telling you that the method is not recognized.

The term 'Get-AzureRmAnalysisServicesServer'isnot recognizedas the name of a cmdlet,function, script file,or operable program.

Go to the Modules page and check whether you see AzureRM.AnalysisServices in the list. If not then use the 'Browse gallery' button to add it, but first add AzureRM.Profile because the Analysis module will ask for it. Adding the modules could take a few minutes!

Add modules

Click here for more information about all Azure Analysis Services cmdlets that are included in the AzureRM.AnalysisServices module.
6) Runbooks
Now it is time to add a new Azure Runbook for the PowerShell code. Click on Runbooks and then add a new runbook (There are also four example runbooks of which AzureAutomationTutorialScript could be useful as an example). Give your new Runbook a suitable name and choose PowerShell as type.

Add Azure Runbook

7) Edit Script
After clicking Create in the previous step the editor will we open. When editing an existing Runbook you need to click on the Edit button to edit the code. You can copy and paste the code below to your editor. Study the green comments to understand the code. Also make sure to compare the variable names in the code to the once created in step 4 and change them if necessary.

Note 1: This is a very basic script. No error handling has been added. Check the AzureAutomationTutorialScript for an example. Finetune it for you own needs.Note 2: There are often two versions of an method like Get-AzureRmSqlDatabase and Get-AzureSqlDatabase. Always use the one with "Rm" in it (Resource Managed), because that one is for the new Azure portal. Without Rm is for the old/classic Azure portal.
Note 3: Because Azure Automation doesn't support Out-Null I used an other trick with the $null =. However the Write-Outputs are for testing purposes only. Nobody sees them when they are scheduled.Note 4: The code with the Resume is commented out with a hashtag. Either use the two suspend rows or the two pause rows.7) Testing
You can use the Test Pane menu option in the editor to test your PowerShell scripts. When clicking on Run it will first Queue the script before Starting it. Running takes a couple of minutes.

Testing the script in the Test Pane

8) Publish
When your script is ready, it is time to publish it. Above the editor click on the Publish button. Confirm overriding any previously published versions.

Publish the Runbook

9) Schedule
And now that we have a working and published Azure Runbook, we need to schedule it. Click on Schedule to create a new schedule for your runbook. For this pause script I created a schedule that runs every working day on 9:00PM (21:00). The resume script could for example be scheduled on working days at 7:00AM. Now you need to hit the refresh button in the Analysis Services overview in Azure to see if it really works. It takes a few minutes to run, so don't worry too soon.

Add Schedule

Summary
In this post you saw how you can pause and resume your Azure Analysis Services instance to save some money in Azure during the quiet hours. The screenshots only show the pause script, but the resume script is commented out. For pause and resume you have a couple of options. You could create one script with a parameter that indicates a pause or resume. An other option is to use a fancy if-construction that uses the current status and/or time to decide whether you need to pause or to resume. Or just create two separate scripts for pause and resume.

Monday, 24 April 2017

Case
The Case is about importing flat files (CSV’s) without the necessity of metadata. Because BIML always check’s if the tables are accessible before creating the packages. The first step is to create the tables with BIML and the Second step is creating the SSIS packages to transport the data.

Because of the size of the solution I’ve created two solution, one for creating the tables and secondly creating the SSSI packages. you can click on the link to go to the other solution (later this month I’will deploy to second script).
In this solution, we create a BIML that is going to create the tables and all the columns are defined as strings

Solution - Creating SSIS packages
we have created the tables in the database, now we can start creating the SSIS package that extract the data from the CSV and transport them into the database.
Our SSIS packages contain a table truncation and a dataflow task with a simple transport from source to destination. We also create a masterpackage which execute the SSIS packages.
The CSV file we are going to use for this solution looks like this

CSV file

1) Determine the colums
Normally (if we look to the example above) we can use this code to determine the columns:

Note that the last colums uses the CRLF delimiter (CR = Carriage Return and LF = Line Feed)
Now we want BIML to do this for us, so we add a loop that loops through the first row of the textfile and when the loop is at the end of the row, it uses the CRLF delimiter
The code should look like this:

We call this “3_Generate_Man_SSIS.bml”
If we run this BIML script this will be the end result

End result

Summary
In the first blogspot, we explained how to create the tables, we need these tables which transport the actual data.
It’s important to first create the tables in the database and then create the SSIS packages.
Of course, this is a simple example for filling the staging area, feel free to add more component, like a row count transformation etc.

Monday, 17 April 2017

Case
I only want to use my Azure Data Warehouse for a couple of hours per day. I want to automatically pause and resume my Azure DWH to minimize the Azure costs. How do I do that in Azure?

Pause and Resume Azure Data Warehouse

Solution
You could solve this with a scripting language like PowerShell and run that PowerShell script each morning and evening with SQL Server Agent or Windows Scheduler, but for this solution I will use Azure Runbook with its scheduler. So the entire solution runs in Azure.

1) Automation Account
First we need an Azure Automation Account to run the Runbook. If you don't have one or want to create a new one, then search for Automation under Monitoring + Management and give it a suitable name, then select your subscription, resource group and location. For this example I will choose West Europe since I'm from the Netherlands.

Azure Automation Account

2) Credentials
Next step is to create Credentials to run this runbook with. This works very similar to the Credentials in SQL Server Management Studio. Go to the Azure Automation Account and click on Credentials in the menu. Then click on Add New Credentials. You could just use your own Azure credentials, but the best options is to use a service account with a non-expiring password. Otherwise you need to change this regularly.

Create new credentials

3) Connections
This step is for your information only and to understand the code. Under Connections you will find a default connection named 'AzureRunAsConnection' that contains information about the Azure environment, like the tendant id and the subscription id. To prevent hardcoded connection details we will retrieve these fields in the PowerShell code.

Azure Connections

4) Variables
An other option to prevent hardcoded values in your PowerShell code it to use Variables. We will use this option to provide the Resource Group, SQL Server Name and Database Name. Go to Variables and add a new variable for ResourceGroupName and add the name of the Resource Group that is used by your Azure DB. Then repeat this for ServerName (name only without .database.windows.net) and DatabaseName (the name of your Azure DWH database).

Add variables

5) Runbooks
Now it is time to add a new Azure Runbook for the PowerShell code. Click on Runbooks and then add a new runbook (There are also four example runbooks of which AzureAutomationTutorialScript could be useful as an example). Give your new Runbook a suitable name and choose PowerShell as type.

Add Azure Runbook

6) Edit Script
After clicking Create in the previous step the editor will we open. When editing an existing Runbook you need to click on Edit to edit the code. You can copy and paste the code below to your editor. Study the green comments to understand the code.

Note 1: This is a very basic script. No error handling has been added. Check the AzureAutomationTutorialScript for an example. Finetune it for you own needs.Note 2: There are often two versions of an method like Get-AzureRmSqlDatabase and Get-AzureSqlDatabase. Always use the one with "Rm" in it (Resource Managed), because that one is for the new Azure portal. Without Rm is for the old/classic Azure portal.
Note 3: Because Azure Automation doesn't support Out-Null I used an other trick with the $null =. However the Write-Outputs are for testing purposes only. Nobody sees them when they are scheduled.Note 4: The code the Resume is commented out with a hashtag. Either use the two suspend rows or the two pause rows.7) Testing
You can use the Test Pane menu option in the editor to test your PowerShell scripts. When clicking on Run it will first Queue the script before Starting it. Running takes several minutes (a bit longer then changing the tier).

Testing the script in the Test Pane

8) Publish
When your script is ready, it is time to publish it. Above the editor click on the Publish button. Confirm overriding any previously published versions.

Publish the Runbook

9) Schedule
And now that we have a working and published Azure Runbook, we need to schedule it. Click on Schedule to create a new schedule for your runbook. For this pause script I created a schedule that runs every working day on 9:00PM (21:00). The resume script could for example be scheduled on working days at 7:00AM. Now you need to hit the refresh button in the SQL Databases overview in Azure to see if it really works. It takes a few minutes to run, so don't worry too soon.

Add Schedule

Summary
In this post you saw how you can pause and resume your Azure Data Warehouse to save some money in Azure during the quiet hours. The screenshots only show the pause script, but the resume script is commented out. For pause and resume you have a couple of options. You could create one script with a parameter that indicates a pause or resume. An other option is to use a fancy if-construction that uses the current status and/or time to decide whether you need to pause or to resume. Or just create two separate scripts for pause and resume.

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

Case
I want to downgrade the Tier of my Azure SQL DB automatically after working hours and upgrade it in the morning right before working hours to minimize the Azure costs. How do I do that in Azure?

Change the Tier of your SQL Azure DB

Solution
You could solve this with a scripting language like PowerShell and run that PowerShell script each morning and evening with SQL Server Agent or Windows Scheduler, but for this solution I will use Azure Runbook with its scheduler. So the entire solution runs in Azure.

1) Automation Account
First we need an Azure Automation Account to run the Runbook. If you don't have one or want to create a new one, then search for Automation under Monitoring + Management and give it a suitable name, then select your subscription, resource group and location. For this example I will choose West Europe since I'm from the Netherlands.

Azure Automation Account

2) Credentials
Next step is to create Credentials to run this runbook with. This works very similar to the Credentials in SQL Server Management Studio. Go to the Azure Automation Account and click on Credentials in the menu. Then click on Add New Credentials. You could just use your own Azure credentials, but the best options is to use a service account with a non-expiring password. Otherwise you need to change this regularly.

Create new credentials

3) Connections
This step is for your information only and to understand the code. Under Connections you will find a default connection named 'AzureRunAsConnection' that contains information about the Azure environment, like the tendant id and the subscription id. To prevent hardcoded connection details we will retrieve these two fields in the PowerShell code.

Azure Connections

4) Variables
An other option to prevent hardcoded values in your PowerShell code it to use Variables. We will use this option to provide the Resource Group, SQL Server Name and Database Name. Go to Variables and add a new variable for ResourceGroupName and add the name of the Resource Group that is used by your Azure DB. Then repeat this for ServerName (name only without .database.windows.net) and DatabaseName (the name of your database).

Add variables

5) Runbooks
Now it is time to add a new Azure Runbook for the PowerShell code. Click on Runbooks and then add a new runbook (There are also four example runbooks of which AzureAutomationTutorialScript could be useful as example). Give your new Runbook a suitable name and choose PowerShell as type.

Add Azure Runbook

6) Edit Script
After clicking Create in the previous step the editor will we open. When editing an existing Runbook you need to click on Edit to edit the code. You can copy and paste the code below to your editor.

Note 1: This is a very basic script. No error handling has been added. Check the AzureAutomationTutorialScript for an example. Finetune it for you own needs.Note 2: There are often two versions of an method like Set-AzureRmSqlDatabase and Set-AzureSqlDatabase. Always use the one with "Rm" in it (Resource Managed), because that one is for the new Azure portal. Without Rm is for the old/classic Azure portal.
Note 3: Because Azure Automation doesn't support Out-Null I used an other trick with the $null =. However the Write-Outputs are for testing purposes only. Nobody sees them when they are scheduled.Note 4: This also works for Azure Data Warehouses. Just use other Tiers like DWU400.7) Testing
You can use the Test Pane menu option in the editor to test your PowerShell scripts. When clicking on Run it will first Queue the script before Starting it. Running takes about two minutes.

Testing the script in the Test Pane

8) Publish
When your script is ready, it is time to publish it. Above the editor click on the Publish button. Confirm overriding any previously published versions.

Publish the Runbook

9) Schedule
And now that we have a working and published Azure Runbook, we need to schedule it. Click on Schedule to create a new schedule for your runbook. For this downgrade script I created a schedule that runs every working day on 7:00PM (19:00). The upgrade script could for example be scheduled on working days at 7:00AM. Now you need to hit the refresh button in the SQL Databases overview in Azure to see if it really works. It takes a few minutes to run, so don't worry too soon.

Add Schedule

Summary
In this post you saw how you can upgrade and downgrade your Azure SQL Databases to save some money in Azure during the quiet hours. The screenshots only show the downgrade script. For the upgrade version you have a couple of options. You could create one script with a parameter that indicates an upgrade or downgrade. An other option is to use a fancy if-construction that uses the current tier and/or time to decide whether you need an upgrade or downgrade. Or just create two separate scripts for upgrade and downgrade.